Abuse survivor Collins now papal adviser

Published: Tuesday, March 25, 2014 10:06 p.m. CST

Caption

(Andrew Medichini)

Marie Collins, who was assaulted as a 13-year-old by a hospital chaplain in her native Ireland, attends a press conference at a Vatican-backed symposium on clerical sex abuse, in Rome. Marie Collins is not your ordinary papal adviser: Sexually assaulted as a child by a hospital chaplain, Collins went onto become a leading Irish activist demanding justice for victims of priestly abuse and a fierce critic of the Catholic Churchís handling of the scandal. (AP file photo)

Sexually assaulted as a child by a hospital chaplain, Collins went onto become a leading Irish activist demanding justice for the victims of priestly abuse and a fierce critic of the Catholic Church’s handling of the scandal.

Now she has been named to Pope Francis’ commission on setting sex abuse policy, one of eight people – half of them women – who will help craft the panel’s scope and advise the church on best practices to protect children.

In an interview with The Associated Press, Collins said her top priority was for the Vatican to punish those bishops who have covered up for priests who raped children.

“There’s no point in my mind of having gold-plated child-protection programs in place if there’s no sanction for a bishop who decides to ignore them,” Collins said by telephone from her home in Dublin. “The reason everyone is so angry is not because they have abusers in their ranks. Abusers are in every rank of society. It’s because of the systemic cover-up.”